As Healthcare Fragments, Opportunities in Healthcare Forms Explode

Have you ever wondered why your doctor’s office still hands you a clipboard and asks you to fill out a paper form? Even though there have been federal requirements to move toward electronic records (including a December 2022 deadline to support smartphone apps), printed healthcare forms are stubbornly sticking around.

Why? Healthcare providers must provide options for patients who aren’t able to — or aren’t comfortable with — using electronic devices. Then there is the practical reality of implementing electronic records. Making the switch is costly and time-consuming, and many hospitals and medical offices aren’t in a hurry to get it done. Especially since the plurality of doctor’s offices are small, staffed by less than five physicians. It’s not a high priority line item in the budget.

Needless to say, paper forms will be around for a while. This means high volumes of repeatable, high-profit jobs for insurance and claim forms, prescription pads, billing forms, general history forms, immunization records, medical records, and more.

Potential Account Base is Growing

For distributors, the opportunity isn’t in the volume of forms alone. It’s also in the volume of potential accounts. The healthcare market is massive, and it is one of the few vertical markets in which the number of potential accounts is rapidly growing. Just look at some of the numbers:

• 230,000 primary care and specialty physicians’ offices¹
• 9,000 urgent care centers²
• 6,000 hospitals³
• 5,000 hospice agencies⁴
• 15,000 nursing homes⁵
• 200,000 dentists⁶
• 60,000 physical and substance rehab facilities⁸
• 200,000 dental offices⁹
• 32,000 optometrist offices¹⁰

This doesn’t count all of the medical labs, rehabilitation facilities, dentists, optometrists, and more. All of these use paper forms.

Don’t let the “hundreds of thousands” fool you, either. Each of these healthcare facilities can have thousands of patients. The 6,000 hospitals have nearly one million staffed beds, for example, and the 15,000 nursing homes have 1.4 million patients. That is a lot of forms!

Let’s Hear It for Non-Traditional Healthcare

Not only are there hundreds of thousands of traditional healthcare facilities already in operation, but the healthcare industry continues to fragment. As it does, new healthcare facilities open, and each is a potential account. Specialty and alternatives to traditional medicine, in particular, are seeing extraordinary growth. The number of urgent care centers alone has jumped 30% from 6,400⁶ in 2014 to 9,000 today. It seems that you can’t go from your home to the grocery store without running into one of them.

Accupuncture is another example. Once considered fringe medicine, acupuncture has become mainstream and is covered under many health insurance plans. While many acupuncturists are employed by hospitals and other medical facilities, others are opening their own practices. When they do, nearly all of them use paper forms.

Another major growth area is nurse practitioners (NPs). The number of NPs is expected to grow a whopping 45% by 2030.⁷ Many of these are also opening their own practices, and communities are embracing these practices as more personal, accessible alternatives to traditional medical care.

Now add to this the growth in the mental health field — outpatient therapists, substance abuse treatment centers, residential treatment centers, psychiatric hospitals, and more. With more need for mental health services than there are providers, the mental health field is an area ripe with opportunity, both for therapists and distributors.

If you thought that the healthcare forms market was dying and the opportunities were few, we hope you think again. The reality is that the opportunities to jump into the healthcare forms market are many — and that is as obvious as the stethoscope on your doctor’s chest.

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